Ukraine plans to evacuate citizens trapped in the vast Azovstal steel plant in beleaguered Mariupol on Friday.
"An operation is planned today to get civilians out of the plant," the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, according to Reuters, without giving any further details.
The Mariupol municipal council said about 100,000 people are in grave danger across the city as a result of Russian bombardment and unclean conditions, as well as a dire scarcity of drinking water and food.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after negotiations in Kyiv on Thursday that strenuous talks were still going on to allow the evacuation of a steel mill where combatants and civilians remain holed up in southern Ukraine.